Author Profile

John Beese’s fantasy football journey began in 1998 when his brother invited him to fill the final spot — number 12 — in a league with his fraternity brothers. It was a simple favor, filling an empty roster slot. What he didn’t know was that it would set the course for the next two and a half decades of his professional life.

In 2007, John crossed paths with Darrin while the two were working side by side as car salesmen at Doug Chevrolet in Akron, Ohio. Between shifts and during slow afternoons on the lot, conversation kept drifting back to the same topic: fantasy football. Both men loved the game, both had opinions about how it could be better, and eventually, those conversations stopped being casual and started being something else entirely. A plan began to take shape. Masters Fantasy Football was born out of that partnership — two guys from Akron who believed there was a better way to run a league.

Within a year of launching, Masters began offering leagues to the public. In 2011, the company introduced dynasty leagues, and playoff leagues followed that same year. Guillotine leagues were added to the lineup in 2021. But the timeline of product launches only tells part of the story. What truly set Masters apart was a willingness to rethink the details that most platforms took for granted — and in some cases, to throw out the conventional approach entirely.